Geographies: Telangana

Like always, the business ecosystem of Hyderabad has trusted Startup Weekend and recognized it as a way to create new growth stories around its respective businesses, products and services. We would like to announce them, while also expressing our humble gratitude.

TBI – BITS

For the first prize winner: TBI has agreed to provide three months of incubation services worth Rupees 1 Lakh, with mentorship. If the team succeeds in building a prototype, then it would be rewarded with a cash prize of Rupees 50,000/- and it also stands to gain further opportunities in seed funding upto INR 25 Lakhs.

Ozonetel

Winner: KooKoo Gold Ports (5) for Six Months, Worth Rupees 60,000/-

Participants: Each team gets a KooKoo silver egg account worth Rupees 7,500, free for three months. Also, the CloudAgent Lite One India plan free for 3 months, worth INR 4,500/-. With CloudAgent Lite you can build a startup in a weekend and get a business phone system for your startup!

50kVentures

Winner: 50k Accelerator is offering one-month Accelerator for free

91Springboard

Winning Team: 2 members of the team would get an access to the co-working space for a period of three months.

The August Fest:

The First Prize Winning team will get The August Fest complimentary passes (3 passes + 50% discounted tickets for rest of the team(s)).

First Prize Winners from Startup Weekend India events before September 1st will get wild card entry to Pitch on Stage @ The August Fest 2016. (Provided the team is intact and taking the product to the market).

The healthcare startup world saw $4.5 billion in venture funding in 2015, up from $4.3B in 2014. These startups all purport to “fix” healthcare. But what does that exactly mean? What do these startups actually do? There’s no simple answer. With the myriad of problems that exist in healthcare, startups have carved out increasingly smaller and more specialized niches. I’d like to use this post to break down the different types of healthcare innovations. To start, here is an illustration that reflects how I think about today’s health startups. All views are my own

A Guide to Reading the Map

The majority of health innovation can generally be understood via 4 linked buckets: 1) Patient Empowerment, 2) Healthcare Coordination, 3) Payment Reform, and 4) Personalized Medicine. A startup may not fit neatly into any one bucket, but most likely falls somewhere among the other subcategories. First things first, what do these 4 buckets mean?

Patient Empowerment

What is it?

These are startups that are strongly consumer or patient-oriented, which “empower” the patient to take an active role in their own health. Most well-known startups likely fall in this space given their consumer-friendly marketing and appeal.

What problems do they address?

Patients have largely been missing from the healthcare dialogue. When patients fail to feel involved in the dialogue, so does their willingness to engage in positive health practices. For example, patient adherence to medication may drop if the patient feels uninspired and uninformed about the drug, thus negatively impacting their overall health. A patient seeking a physician about a condition, without an easy-to-use online search portal, may never initiate that conversation if they don’t know where to search. The problem boils down to consumer transparency in healthcare, an industry that’s traditionally opaque from end to end.

Healthcare Coordination

What is it?

These are startups that bridge connections between different healthcare stakeholders. Any startup that works towards this bridge (e.g. between a nurse to a doctor, a doctor to a hospital, or a hospital to a payer, etc.) falls under this category.

What problems do they address?

Healthcare is very disjointed. Not only are patients generally not a part of the dialogue, but care is often siloed by setting. It’s both an infrastructure and cultural problem. It’s infrastructure in that different units of the same hospital system may maintain different types of databases for patient records. Medical records may not be passed on efficiently from doctor to doctor. Payers also own a different, unlinked set of claims data that can reveal huge insights into patient health. It’s cultural in that once a patient is discharged or leaves a hospital, there is often no continuum of care that ensures the patient continues to be adherent to medication or is following proper treatment protocols. Once a patient leaves a setting of care for an acute treatment, there may be low obligation to maintain care. This leads us to payment reform.

Payment Reform

What is it?

Such startups maintain that healthcare is disjointed and costly because of misaligned financial incentives. At the moment, there’s low drive to unify care because those that may reap the cost savings of improved outcomes may not be the ones investing in the change. While patient care is always the goal, the financial lens through which payers, doctors, or health systems see through could vary. These startups focus on re-aligning financial incentives across healthcare stakeholders.

What problems do they address?

Healthcare costs are skyrocketing and treatments are becoming more expensive. While stronger health coordination can alleviate costs, it may not be sustainable without fundamentally changing how healthcare is paid for. Can we financially incentivize health stakeholders to encourage better continuum of care? Can we demonstrate that cost-savings are possible if treatments are conducted a certain way? While government-sponsored solutions are emerging, startups are pushing ahead with platforms that help align financial incentives to benefit healthcare stakeholders, and most importantly, the patient.

Personalized Medicine

What is it?

Personalized medicine (aka: ‘precision medicine’) refers to the concept that as we collect more patient data (see ‘Patient Empowerment’), we can design better treatments custom-tailored to a specific patient. The majority of startups here focus on personal diagnostics and genomicbased treatments. I consider these to be the more medicallyoriented counterparts to startups in “Patient Empowerment.”

What problems do they address?

Treatments today are designed at a population-level. Clinical studies for drugs are conducted over hundreds or even thousands of participants. Treatment guidelines are often created via population-level inferences on what seems to work for different diseases. The availability of new patient data and emerging ease of genomics testing has enabled a new world of research into personalized medicine, whereby treatments target a patient’s medical background, treatment history, or genetic makeup. However, personalized treatments may be costly to an unprecedented level, so startups under “Payment Reform” are also seeking to address this emerging issue.

Diving into the Niches

With these 4 buckets in mind, let’s dive right into what all these subcategories mean. I’ll do my best to highlight example startups* in each specific subcategory. *Note: This is not a comprehensive nor competitive assessment of startups. Startups in the same category don’t necessary compete, but for the sake of simplification, play in a similar area. These subcategories are also not mutually exclusive for a startup; startups often offer services that play across multiple buckets. Please use this guide more so as an indication of what types of startups to explore for those interested in learning more.

*Note: This is not a comprehensive nor competitive assessment of startups. Startups in the same category don’t necessary compete, but for the sake of simplification, play in a similar area. These subcategories are also not mutually exclusive for a startup; startups often offer services that play across multiple buckets. Please use this guide more so as an indication of what types of startups to explore for those interested in learning more.

Consumer Diagnostics:

These are startups that take traditionally old methods of diagnostics and make them more accessible to the public. So rather than go to a lab for testing, perhaps a consumer can buy a finger-prick device that plugs into a phone to measure glucose levels. The belief is that by making tests more convenient and accessible, patient engagement in their own health will be higher, and thus more real-time and accurate.

Wearables: Wearables are consumer-friendly devices that you “wear” to track data and metrics about your own health. It’s similar to “Consumer Diagnostics”, except for the key difference that these devices do not “diagnose” anything (and thus do not go through a robust FDA-approval process). Rather, data is collected on diet, exercise, or lifestyle indicators as opposed to cholesterol or glucose levels.

Wellness and Lifestyle: In a step beyond wearables, these startups focus on entire platforms to support a consumer’s healthy lifestyle decisions. Startups are often weight-loss, diet, or exercise oriented and provide souped-up, fun, “gamified” platforms to encourage a consumer’s commitment to be healthy.

Example startups: Welltok, LifeSum, Glow, Rally Health

Health Convenience:

Such startups look to add transparency to the decades-old, antiquated user interface and opaqueness of healthcare. Health is so complex that patients fail to engage in their own health out of sheer inconvenience. To make healthcare more consumer-friendly, startups are creating new portals to find doctors, buy insurance, pay bills, and much more all in the name of enhancing consumer accessibility.

Telehealth: In addition to health convenience, there are also some real infrastructure issues that prevent physicians from communicating with their patients effectively, especially after they are discharged or leave their setting-of-care. Telehealth startups focus on bridging this gap by providing consumer and physicianfriendly tools that enhance communication (e.g. instant chat, live video, etc.) These startups don’t just help you find a healthcare professional, but look to move the entire doctor-patient relationship to the digital space.

Example startups: American Well, Teladoc, Doctor on Demand, HealthTap

Care Management: Such startups take a bigger picture approach to care and directly guide patients across the complex healthcare system: between different doctors, different hospital systems, or other settings-of-care. These may involve elements of “telehealth” and “health convenience,” but the overarching goal is to provide a friendly coach to keep patients engaged in the healthcare system by providing supportive services. Some are disease-focused. Some are more payer-driven. It’s a big category which can be further subdivided.

Health IT and EMR: Such solutions are typically less patientcentric, but enterprise-focused for health systems or payers. These startups may target data technology issues, new EMR (electronic medical record) systems, or even new modes of enterprise communication (e.g. doctor-to-doctor). These platforms seek to unify health through updating and improving on today’s health tech infrastructure beyond patient engagement. This is another big subcategory that can be further subdivided.

Case Management: Case management looks to oversee care for specific acute or chronic conditions, rather than the more generalized “care management” approach. The primary aim is to reduce costs. Cases are usually disease-specific with startups taking the initiative to manage the cases health systems or payers have had difficulty managing. As a result, startups may carve out (a term used to describe when another group takes financial ownership of a medical situation that would traditionally fall to a payer) challenging conditions like “mental health” for care coordination and share cost savings accrued back to the system. As such, these startups often contain elements of “care management” or “health IT” solutions. Approaches also include defining better treatment guidelines, pathways, or protocols.

Quality Metrics Reporting: Quality metrics have grown in increasing influence as a means to understand how effectively or efficiently various providers or health systems are operating. Over time, payers and government pilots have tested the idea of benchmarking payment to these metrics. Unfortunately for many physicians or health systems, finding the data for these metrics can be time-consuming and difficult. Startups have emerged that partner with providers to simplify this.

Example startups: Aledade, QPID Health

Health Exchange/Marketplace:

Many startups have taken a cue from the government-sponsored health exchanges from Obamacare and taken a privatized approach. These startups often curate their own private marketplaces for individuals or employers, such that they can more effectively choose health plans that match their personal or employee group’s profile.  Example startups: Maxwell Health, Truveris, Gravie, HealthSherpa

Alternative Financing/Value-Based Care:

Government and startups have been exploring new payment models to replace the de facto fee-for-service (FFS) model. Whereas payers pay for each service under FFS, new payment models are being tested that pay for value of service provided. Sometimes this means paying providers a lump sum (or bundle) for an “episode-of-care” and leaving it up to the providers to dictate how they want to allocate that spend on treatments for a patient. Many variations of these payment models exist. To that end, startups have begun to help address the more difficult questions: how do you measure value? how much should the bundle be?

Companion Diagnostics: Companion diagnostics are slowly changing the way treatment decisions are made or drugs are prescribed. Such devices help doctors make drug treatment decisions. Perhaps a certain gene in your body reveals you should not receive Drug X. The resulting benefit is that expensive drugs are only being used on patients where they have the highest chance of success.

Genetics-Based Therapy: Genetic-based therapies are taking an even further leap when it comes to advancing human health. There are many ways to segment genetic-based therapies: genomic editing, stem-cell gene therapy, genetic-based age research, etc. As more data comes from genetic-based “consumer diagnostics,” the more that can be done in uncovering how genetic differences impact our healthcare decisions.

If there’s one core aspect of my map I haven’t quite addressed, it’s the concept of “big data.” While it may be a worn-out, overused buzzword, it’s still something that many, if not all, of the startups above touch on.

Healthcare is one of the most searched topics on the Internet. From questions about which plan is best for you, to information about different medical conditions, the Web is often the first place people turn for answers. Check out these eight startups that are revolutionizing the way we understand and utilize our healthcare to make life a little easier.

1. Stickk

With its roots beginning at Yale University, stickK co-founder Dean Karlan noticed a need for accountability when it came to personal health. Karlan himself fell victim to the habit of setting weight-loss goals and never seeing them through. After entering into a financial contract with a friend to lose 38 pounds each, Karlan realized the true power of accountability. With major money on the line and an added ‘no negotiation’ clause, both men found themselves 38 pounds lighter at the end of their trial. Inspired by his success, Karlan wanted to share his newfound “Commitment Contracts” with the world.

So, how exactly do these contracts work? You begin your contract by setting a personal goal. This goal can be anything from shedding some unwanted pounds to quitting a bad habit, such as smoking. Once you set your goal, you can add financial incentives—deciding where you want your money to go, should you fail. Then comes your referee. Users can designate a friend to be their personal goal monitor—who reports back to stickK on your progress. Finally, you can select supporters to cheer you on in your commitment to personal health.

2. ZocDoc

In 2007, ZocDoc was created to provide the citizens of New York with a way to make dentist appointments online. Four years later, it has evolved into a Web site that now serves 12 major cities in the U.S and over 60 fields of expertise. ZocDoc allows users to search by medical specialty, along with your insurance provider and zip code. With one click, all of the doctors in the selected field in your area and insurance network are visible—along with their available appointments. By clicking on an appointment time, you can actually book the appointment on the spot. ZocDoc continues to be at the forefront of this technology—even adding an app for your phone. They also produce a blog that offers information on everything from different medical conditions to healthy lifestyle practices.

3. Cake Health

If you ask the average person to explain a hospital bill or insurance plan in depth, the answer you’ll often receive is a blank stare. Medical bills and insurance paperwork are the bane of most patients’ existence. That’s exactly what Rebecca Woodcock, co-founder of Cake Health, grew tired of after watching a friend find herself in financial and unnecessary trouble due to a medical condition. Cake Health offers users a way to track, organize and understand their medical bills and insurance policies. Once you enter your health care information into your personal and secure account, you are able to see exactly where your money is going and even track your deductibles and claims history. Cake Health also offers users alerts and reminders for things like possible overcharges, reaching your deductible and prescription refills.

4. One Medical Group

One Medical Group believes in more quality time with your doctor and less time in the waiting room. Founded by Dr. Tom X. Lee, One Medical caters to an atmosphere of hospitality. Much like with a concierge doctor, patients are given the time and care not often seen in today’s medical offices. With locations in San Francisco, D.C. and New York, One Medical is changing the way patients interact with their doctors. The practitioners see, at a maximum, 16 patients per day—about 9 less than the average doctor. This allows patients more quality time with their doctors. Patients can also log in to their personal account to book same-day appointments, view medical records and even refill prescriptions—saving an extra trip to the doctor. One Medical also allows patients to email their doctor directly with questions and even treatment updates.

5. RedBrick Health

A health technology and services company, RedBrick Health is leading the health care industry to Consumer-Owned health. This concept allows employers to promote wellness in their company, as they guide their employees to take ownership of their personal health. RedBrick offers personal wellness programs—such as biometric health screenings—to employers looking to decrease their insurance costs. These programs reward healthy behavior in employees while also promoting long-term healthy lifestyle choices. They believe healthier employees increase productivity in the workplace. RedBrick stands by their mission to help people live the fullest and healthiest lives they can possibly live.

6. Avado

With products for both the provider and patient sectors, Avado is changing the way doctors run their practices—making visits easier on their patients. Their Patient Relationship Management (PRM) system offers a way to effectively engage in a partnership with their patients. The PRM allows doctors to send patients reminders to take their vitals, perform their physical therapy and even reminders to take their medicine. Avado allows patients to have a true relationship with their physicians, and at the same time, feel like they have a voice with their personal health care. Avado’s PRM system is a great way for patients to record and track their health history by uploading their vital statistics. This tool is not only helpful to individuals, but to families in need of organization when it comes to their medical needs.

7. Bloom Health

With a vested interest in both employers and their employees, Bloom Health is changing the way you can choose health insurance. Bloom Health offers employers a way to give their employees options when it comes to health care. How does it work? Employers offer a defined amount of money toward each employee, and through Bloom Health’s personality report, individuals can choose which plan suits them best. After taking a quiz, employees are given the best insurance plans based on their individualized results. Next, they can compare and contrast plans against what they currently have. Should the employee choose a different plan, Bloom Health takes care of the application process with one click.

8. Sharecare

Realizing the educational power of the Internet, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Jeff Arnold created Sharecare—an interactive Q&A platform to provide quality health care information to the public. Sharecare gives people clear and concise information about their health, all in one place. Renowned doctors, expert researchers and leading medical professionals come together to offer the most current treatment options, wellness advice, nutrition information and much more. Commercial brands answer questions about their products, so users can make an informed decision about their well-being. Sharecare established an Advisory Board, hosting the finest medical professionals in the industry. They represent the different areas of medical expertise and are committed to consumer health education. Sharecare also has an A-Z reference library for many medical topics. Simply type in a question and get instant answers from top medical professionals around the world.

One weekend to start a business? Is it even realistic? Hell, yeah! At Startup Weekend Hyderabad we present you the challenge! In fact our slogan is “I started a company in 54 hours, what did you do last weekend?!”, and trust me – it doesn’t get any better than this!

It’s a simple event. Participants are of various kinds – you have geeks/developers who know nothing else but coding, Designers, hustlers/communication experts who are good with marketing, and then there are the guys who are bored to death in their job and think “Entrepreneurship?! That’s fun!”.

For the first two days, it is only the participants, mentors and the organisers! Third/Final day, the judges come in to pick the winners! So, first we have the participants pitching their ideas to everyone in one minute (elevator pitches). Then, we have everyone voting for the ideas/pitches they love the best – 25 of the top voted ideas are chosen to be worked upon! Participants, then form complementary teams and work on making a prototype/business plan for the chosen ideas! Mentors will guide all the teams and offer plenty of advise!

After all the task completions, working like hell through days and nights, yelling at each other, giving everything they’ve got, in short, the teams, eventually sell the dream! And that is, the final day presentations of business plans/prototypes to the judges(5 minute pitches) who criticise with passion and the verdict is finally out! Winners are announced, we have top three places and a crowd’s favourite!

The winners getting amazing prizes that range from free office spaces to software licenses for limited periods of time!

For most of us, Startup Weekend Hyderabad teaches a lot about startups and how to go about them! And for a handful of us, it might still not be as clear – but then it is true that above everything else, Startup Weekend Hyderabad is filled with fun, networking, passionate people, adrenalin rushes, massive loads of food, lots of coffee, and wonderful experiences!

-Varun Mallapragada.

Startup Weekend Hyderabad (Healthcare & Analytics) will be held on 26th – 28th of August, 2016 at ISB, Gachibowli. To participate, please register at Page on swhyd.co.in

Participants: Each team will win KooKoo Silver Egg account, free for 3 months, worth Rs. 7,500. Also, the CPBX One India plan free for 3 months, worth Rs. 4,500. With CPBX you can build a startup in a weekend and get a business phone system for your startup!

4. Stunnly

• 1st Prize Winner: One minute explainer video worth $249

5. August Fest

• 1st Prize Winner: The Winning Team (3 Team Members) from each city will get Complimentary Tickets to The August Fest 2015 – India’s Largest Startup Conference. Complimentary demo pod at The August Fest if product is related to Internet of Things/Wearable/Healthcare Tech.

• 2nd Prize Winner: Complimentary demo pod at The August Fest if product is related to Internet of Things/Wearable/Healthcare Tech.

• 3rd Prize Winner: Complimentary demo pod at The August Fest if product is related to Internet of Things/Wearable/Healthcare Tech.

Special discounted delegate passes to The August Fest 2015 for the SW India Alumni. All paid trip to the winning team The August Fest – India’s Largest Startup Conference, to only One Winning Team (2 Team Members) chosen from all the Startup Weekends happening across India before August 2015.

6. Cloudboost

• 1st Prize Winner: $500 free credit

• 2nd Prize Winner: $350 free credit

• 3rd Prize Winner: $200 free credit

• Participants: $100 free credit per team

7. Startup Studio

• 1st Prize Winner: Introduce to Federal Bank team for winners and help through Startup Studio Acceleration Program.

Kumar, a farmer, living in Eastern Maharashtra sits on a rattling, crowded bus, halfway through his 10 hour journey to the city. He clutches a black strapped bag close to his chest as he is jostled into the corner seat. He knows the dangers of traveling like this, only last month he had seen a man frantically searching under the seats for his bag that had contained all the money he had saved that month. Kumar’s children have gone to the city to pursue their higher education, and perhaps eventually, look for employment there. Every month, he takes a 10 hour bus ride to the city to give them money in the form of hard cash. As a farmer, at a transactional level, Kumar only deals with crops and hard cash. Unlike urban populations, the nearest bank for him is 2 hours away, and even if he could’ve managed that, his cash flow is unpredictable. There are months where he barely makes ends meet, the rest of the time, the money feels safer under his bed than in some far away bank. There are other challenges too: the local money lenders can’t be trusted with cash; his neighbour learnt that the hard way, travelling for 10 hours with loose money in his hand was also a perilous choice, but at least he is in constant vigilance over his saved money.

Kumar is not alone. Thousands of Indians face this quandary on a regular basis, financial security and protection are luxuries that they can only dream of. But what if they could be provided these ‘luxuries’? The answer to that question is no longer hypothetical, because “Fintech” companies like BankingUp are providing services specifically tailored to address concerns like Kumar’s. While BankingUp is limited to the US, its concept is something that could transcend geographical boundaries. BankingUp for example strives to provide lower sections of society (Particularly those without access to a bank account or a credit card) who live in ‘high fraud environments’ the ability to send and receive money electronically, safely.

So what is ‘Fintech’? Fintech – Finance + Technology, is the newest, fast growing business line in the ecommerce space. Indian Fintech start-ups include Policybazaar, Milaap, Jocap and Bankbazaar. More traditional ones include the big powerhouses like Tata Consultancy Services and Cognizant. Fintech companies look to change the game in the financial world, it is because of Fintech companies, that we no longer have to travel to the bank to transfer money between accounts or that we can deal with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The Fintech industry has the potential to be hugely disruptive and will affect the way society fundamentally deals with transactions and financial mechanisms, that is why global investment in the space has more than tripled between the years 2008 to 2013, from nearly $1 Billion to $4 Billion. It’s projected to grow to more than $8 Billion by 2018. Fintech start-ups are already affecting the financial business. Take for example Pindrop, a company that uses software to detect call centre fraud or Lenddo, a company that allows for underwriting small loans; these companies are revolutionizing the way consumers interact with their finances and the market. The Fintech industry is shifting gear and this year already, Australia opened a Fintech Hub for Southeast Asia in Sydney, while a Fintech lab is being launched in Hong Kong to incubate new Financial Technologies from the region.

The Financial Industry is ripe for a disruptive innovation and Fintech start-ups are the next big thing. Can you get your idea out there?